The first American military ration established by a Congressional Resolution, during the Revolutionary War, consisted of enough food to feed a man for one day, mostly beef, peas, and rice.

Finally, the MCI rations had an estimated shelf life of 24 months at 70 °F (21 °C), which was found to be inadequate as supply was often interrupted by weather and enemy activity.

Service members in various geographic regions and combat situations often required different subsets of ingredients for food to be considered palatable over long periods.

Most importantly, the use of specialized forces in extreme environments and the necessity of carrying increasingly heavy field loads while on foot during long missions required significantly lighter alternatives to standard canned wet rations.

In 1963, the DoD began developing the "Meal, Ready to Eat", a ration that would rely on modern food preparation and packaging technology to create a lighter replacement for the canned MCI.

[4] Early MRE prototypes that involved freeze-dried and dehydrated foods were developed under Abdul Rahman, who later received the Meritorious Civilian Service Award for his work.

Further effort, led by Dr. Rauno A. Lampi, Chief of Food Systems Equipment Division at the Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center, concentrated on the refinement of the retort pouch to contain a wet ration with a three-to-ten year shelf life that could be easily shipped, carried in the field, opened and consumed straight out of the package if necessary with no further heat or water.

By 1994, commercial-like graphics were added to make the packets more user-friendly and appealing, while biodegradable materials were introduced for inedible components, such as spoons and napkins.

The ration originally came in a dark brown outer bag from 1981 to 1995 because it was designed for service in the temperate forests and plains of central Europe.

[12] Although manipulations to the food items and distribution of macronutrients to help boost the amount of kilocalories per MRE have been made, more studies are showing many service members still do not meet today's standards of daily consumption, often trading and discarding portions of the ration.

[17] They are intended to be eaten for a maximum of 21 days (the assumption is that logistics units can provide fresh food rations by then), and have a minimum shelf life of three years (depending on storage conditions).

New forms of packaging are being considered to better meet these requirements including the use of zein to replace the foil, which can be easily punctured, conducts heat, and is reflective (which may give away a servicemember's position).

As a result of earlier unauthorized sales to civilians, the Department of Defense requires that "U.S. Government Property, Commercial Resale is Unlawful" be printed on each case of MREs.

[24] As a result, MREs found for sale outside reputable vendors often fall into a grey market where the question of how it entered civilian hands (through theft/legitimate means) and/or its quality may be unknown.

An investigation conducted in 2006 on behalf of the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) determined multiple instances where sellers on eBay may have improperly obtained MREs and sold them to the public for private gain.

Consequently, "if military MREs are sold to the general public on eBay, then they are clearly not reaching their intended recipients and represent a waste of taxpayer dollars and possible criminal activity.

"[20] Further, MREs found on eBay are typically older and closer to their expiration date, having been sourced in "neighborhood yard sales" and "Marine base dumpsters".

To make MREs more palatable to service members and match ever-changing trends in popular tastes, the military is constantly seeking feedback to adjust MRE menus and ingredients.

[veg 1] The cases of MREs and their variants usually are marked with the production date in the American fashion: 2-digit Month / 2-digit Day / 4-digit Year (e.g., November 24, 1996 would be rendered as 11/24/1996).

The large number of civilians exposed to MREs prompted several jokes during the recent Mardi Gras in New Orleans, with revellers donning clothing made of MRE packets with phrases such as "MRE Antoinette" (referring to Marie Antoinette; the wife of King Louis XVI) and "Man Ready to Eat.

[13] While the nutritional requirements are suitable for a combat environment where servicemembers will burn many calories and lose much sodium through sweat, it has been provided as emergency food or even as a standard meal.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, a 77-year-old civilian man with prior congestive heart failure ended up with volume overload from the high sodium content of MREs.

In December 2006, comedian Al Franken (on his eighth United Service Organizations tour at the time) joked to troops in Iraq that he had his fifth MRE so far and "none of them had an exit strategy.

[44][45] In 2010, the New York Times reported that a French combat ration [fr] (such as cassoulet with accompaniments of deer pâté and nougat) could be traded for around five MREs,[43] though by 2014 it was claimed that MRE menus had improved to the point that their worth had reversed.

Aircrew Build to Order Meal Module (ABOMM) are a special variant consisting of repacking existing MRE food elements into a form that provides military flight crews and tank operators with a meal designed to be eaten on the go or while operating their aircraft or ground vehicle without the use of utensils, and packaged for use in confined spaces.

It is otherwise created and packaged much like MREs; feedback from the Afghanistan campaign led to the interior packing being reinforced to withstand being air-dropped, as the packets sometimes ruptured on impact.

MARCs were developed specifically for detainees at Guantanamo Bay, and have since found wider spread use, notably Iraq and Afghanistan.

MARC meals are entirely vegetarian as an easy way to prevent conflicts with culturally "prohibited products" (Islam and Judaism forbidding pork, Hindus avoiding beef, etc).

Many of the menus available have a Southeast Asian or Indian style to them (Saag Chole, curried vegetables), but others are simply the equivalent of vegetarian MREs (Cheese Tortellini, Minestrone).

Each TOTM ration case is packed with a full menu of 12 assorted meals, weighs about 20 lbs (9 kg), and is 0.95 cubic feet (27 L).